Inside Voiceover—Cutting-edge Insights + Enlightening, Entertaining News for Voiceover Professionals
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Some of the well-known voices in the Mass Effect 3 game voice cast include Martin Sheen, Seth Green, Fredie Prinze, Jr, Trish Helfer, Keith David and Jennifer Hale, of course.
Connected Consoles: "Martin Sheen and Seth Green return to reprise their roles, and the rest you'll find in the video"
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This just goes to prove that Sir David Attenborough's can make anything sound noble and dignified, even this very frustrated tortoise ...just watch.
[Thanks to friend of Inside Voiceover and devoted Anglophile, Nicki Rapp for posting this one first!!] 
Those of you who are in LA should not miss this! Not only is Bill Ratner one of the most recognizable voices in the business, but he also happens to be an award-winning storyteller. Fow more of Bill's masterful storytelling skills:(NSFW: Language)
VOICES IN MY HEAD: A LIFE stars Bill Ratner, one of Hollywood’s most successful voice actors and an 8-time winner of The Moth Story Slams. Tracing the strange path that led to his becoming the disembodied voice of a generation, this comic true story tells how a middle-class orphan, liberated by a crystal radio set, discovers the shadowy world of voiceovers through a series of rude awakenings to the perplexing power of electronic imagery in a media-mad nation. 
If you consider that hearing its mother's voice is an in-utero baby's first connection to the external world, this makes sense. We hear the world, and our mother's voice long before we can see it, smell it, taste it or touch it.
Seattle King-5: "In a fascinating new study Published in the Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital played audio recordings to extremely premature infants. When a mom couldn't be at the bedside the baby heard her voice and heartbeat. Those preemies had fewer pauses in breathing, and fewer events of slowed heart beats." 
You can get out there and risk being misjudged or you can play it safe and suffer worse consquences...As usual, master marketer-philosopher, Seth Godin sums up what you need to know in a couple of sentences...
An interesting audio curiosity...a recording of Einstein explaining the theory of relativity...
Open Culture: "In this recording, the physicist offers the briefest explanation of the world’s most famous equation, E=mc2. When was this recorded? We’re unfortunately not sure. Let’s just say somewhere between 1932 (a date Einstein mentions in the clip) and his death in 1955." 
Not to to go all New York Times Sunday Review of Books on you, but you've got to admit that we've got ourselves some pretty impressive source material today...
A thoughtful essay by writer/audiobook connoisseur, John Schwartz, on why casting just the right audiobook reader for the project matters, and how listening with the right narrator can either bring a book to life or turn it into a deadly dull, disengaging experience.
New York Times Sunday Review of Books: "...if somebody’s going to spend 10 or 20 hours in my ears...I’d better enjoy the experience. That means, of course, picking the right books to listen to...Narration is, not surprisingly, an essential part of the experience. However, apart from Jim Dale, who has employed his hundreds of voices for the phenomenally successful series of Harry Potter novels, audiobook performers are little known outside of the community of devoted listeners. The best readers don’t put so much acting into the recording that it interferes with the connection between the author and the listener." 
Brilliant advice. We feel your overwhelmedness, and plan to start putting these suggestions into practice ourselves immediately! How about you? (We're off to tackle the Inbox...)
And thanks to curator Jan. L. Gordon for always finding helpful, smart articles with practical, actionable ideas. _________________________________________________________
I selected this piece by Michael Poh for Hongkiat.com because I'm always looking for ways to simplify being online.
I found some of his suggestions helpful, things I know I should do but now I'm going to take his advice. I hope there's something here for you too!
Excerpt:
"In a time when the world is connected to the Internet 24/7, it’s hard to imagine how we can survive a day without it".
Here's what caught my attention:
Unsubscribe From Email Lists
**We get subscribed to various email lists whenever we purchase or register products and services. That’s how they can market us their latest products or simply update us with what they’re up to
**If your inbox is often flooded with spam, you’ll be surprised at how good it feels when you only get emails that you want to read.
Clear your inbox
**It’s a kind of discipline that you should impose on yourself as you try to keep your Inbox clear.
**It means that once you receive an email that requires your action, you have to act – reply, forwards, follow up, double check, confirm etc – and be done with it ASAP - Yes!!
Have time-0uts or Days Off
**Everyone needs a breather, and enjoy quality time away from such tension. Take an hour or so of quality offline time each day, or a day during the weekends.
**Just switch off from the Net. You’ll realize that you feel much more energetic and alive when you’re moving around and talking to people.
Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"
Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/JLuu10] Via janlgordon 
Audiobook narator and voice actor, Arielle DeLisle, just came out with an excellent and thorough piece on how the ACX process works, complete with videos and screen captures that make it all very easy to follow and understand. (Coincidentally, this happens to be a good companion piece to yesterday's ACX article we posted http://bit.ly/KfCTpF ;)
Reading through this article BEFORE you attempt to take on an ACX project can save you a lot of grief and aggravation; at the same time it takes the mystery out of the process, so we hope that it encourages more of you to audition and participate.
Many thanks to Arielle, for your thoughtful and helpful article. Your fellow voice actors appreciate it!
Arielle DeLisle: "Using ACX is not hard, and all of the requirements are spelled out on their Audiobook Production Rules page. I realize many of you hate reading the directions for things, but much like your IKEA furniture, it’ll all go together more smoothly if you just take a look at the pictures and cross your fingers that they included enough wooden dowels. Actually, scratch that, this is much simpler and very straightforward." 
What will Richard Branson think of next..? Because you never know when you'll have to lay down an emergency voicetrack on your way to Europe...
Pro Tools Expert Blog: "It might sound like some mad story, but it’s completely true, Virgin Airlines have installed a Pro Tools studio for their new Clubhouse at Heathrow airport." A recent, extremely entertaining and very funny radio interview with the the legendary and amazing June Foray, who at 94, is still working and going strong. So strong in fact, that she was recently nominated for an Emmy; believe or not, her first! (http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tv/june-foray-nominated-for-an-emmy-her-first.html
By the way, did you know that June Foray holds the record for signing most Union-contracts in SAG/Aftra history? If you think about it, it makes sense. She's been working in the industry for over 70 years. 
Since we know that several of you have actually considered moving to the UK, and may have even tried it at some point, sounds like there are definitely opportunities there IF: 1) you are a well-trained actor with; 2) good representation and; 3) strong marketing materials...same qualifications as in other major cities. Based on the author's experience, it seems as though video game roles may be in greatest abundance.
But please, please, please, if you're even remotely considering it, do your homework and make some key connections BEFORE you move there, as this blogger did.
American Actress in London: "If you are a North American in London and interested in voice work, get yourself a VO reel and send it out to agents NOW. There is a surprising amount of work to be had but only if you get your voice heard..." 
Visa releases its first new Olympics ad for 2012 ...and Mr. Freeman returns to turn a phrase in a way that is both simultaneously down-home and soaring, as only he can... If you're an Olympics junkie like we are, you'll really appreciate this beautifully-produced ad. Kudos to our friends at Visa for this one...
Cosby Sweaters: "Two years ago I remember watching promo ads for the Visa Olympic ad’s which featured Morgan Freeman and getting chills. This year the same thing happened when I saw the first summer Olympic promo ad which Visa dropped on Monday. Sit back and enjoy!" 
If you're a Colin Firth fan (and seriously, who isn't?), you'll enjoy this interview from the Early Show where he discusses his love of storytelling, audiobooks, and being a part of a new series of audiobooks read by renowned actors produced by Audible.com. He addresses the challenges of recording audiobooks and handling a variety of characters and points out that some good actors are "bad at this."
CBS Early Show: "Actor Colin Firth speaks to the "CBS This Morning" co-hosts about lending his voice to a new series of audio books, and how he prepared himself for his role as a monarch with a stutter in "The King's Speech."... |
If you want to see how physical voice acting can be and what committing to character really means, you don't have to go any further than this video ...Great fun watching Mark Hamill inhabit the "Joker."
Joystiq: "...the first time we personally have ever seen either the Joker or Batman's voices come out of real human bodies, and suffice to say that oh man is it weird. It's almost like Batman and the Joker are providing voiceovers for Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, instead of the other way around." 
Outstanding article on the pleasures of listening to spoken stories, and why human beings are hard-wired for listening (it goes back 160,000 years...) The writer also recognizes the work and talents of pioneering audiobook narrator, the late, great Frank Muller and his contributions to the medium. It's really tragic that he died at such a young age and didn't live long enough to see audiobooks being debated as a legitimate art form by the likes of The New Yorker...
The New Yorker: "Harold Bloom, the literary critic, once expressed doubt about the audiobook. “Deep reading really demands the inner ear as well as the outer ear,” he told the Times. “You need the whole cognitive process, that part of you which is open to wisdom. You need the text in front of you." 
Benedict Cumberbatch's voice + Shakespeare's words = magical. Will more people actually use Google Plus as a result? Probably not, but you'll appreciate the beautifully acted and spoken performance just the same... (You're welcome.)
Adweek: ...commercial from British ad agency Adam & Eve—the first U.K. TV spot for the fledgling social network. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch's measured and thoughtful recitation of Shakespeare's "The Seven Stages of Man" mixes with a moody score and stirring years-roll-by visuals to catalog the milestones of Tom Barker, a fictitious everyman." Pretty cool. This new Facebook app will allow you to send files in any format and up to 1GB in size to anyone on Facebook. No need to upload to FTP servers or cloud storage site like Box.net or storage accounts, like Dropbox or Box.net, unless you are working on a project that requires a very high degree of security.
[Thanks to the amazing Robin Good, the single most prolific and brilliant source of breaking internet marketing and social media news that I know of, for posting this.]
From the official site: "As surprising as it sounds, there's currently no easy and effective way to transfer a file to a friend via Facebook. Pipe has taken a common feature of communication - attaching a file - and turned it into something simple and fun to use. Privacy is guaranteed as it's a direct connection from one device to the other, between friends. Pipe creates a direct, real-time connection between two devices with no intermediary server. Pipe starts as an application on Facebook, and is then migrating to mobile devices and tablets. Find out more: www.usepipe.com
Via Robin Good 
Yes we know that it's our second June Foray article in one week. Deal with it. She is finally getting the long-overdue recognition she deserves and we couldn't be happier for this immensely talented, smart and beautiful lady who enriched so many of our lives with her immaginative and funny characters.
Mass Live: "Springfield native June L. Foray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and so many awards she says she doesn’t have enough room for them on the cocktail table and walls of her Woodland Hills, Calif., home.
But there’s sure to be a place for one more: Foray, 94, has been nominated for a Daytime Entertainment Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for voicing the role of Mrs. Cauldron on “The Garfield Show” on Cartoon Network." 
Excellent and definitely worth your time if you are involved in the storytelling business, as all of us who are connected to voiceover are... A must-watch video in which Ken Burns talks about searching for the complicating x-factor that makes a genuinely compelling story, how all stories are manipulation, and why that's necessarily not a bad thing!
The Atlantic: The iconic documentary filmmaker shares personal insights into the craft of storytelling and his lifelong quest to "wake the dead."... 
Entertaining yes...but what does this have to do with voiceover..?
If you aspire to do cartoon and video game voiceovers, doing impersonations is an extremely useful skill for you to master. While you don't have to be as good and facile as the incredibly talented Mr. Spacey, the ability to create multiple characters (notice that we didn't say 'voices') and jump from one to the next effortlessly is a definite plus when you audition for animation and game.
Bonus: Even bad impressions can be useful. Noted voiceover actor/director/coach, Susan Blu, coaxes her students to do "bad" impressions as a means of discovering new characters.
From the Comments: "He [Spacey] has a wonderful quality to him doesn't he? It is like he lets the whole character take over him and becomes that person completely." 
ACX runs down its list reasons for why you should consider investing in a recording set-up that enables you to produce broadcast-quality voice tracks from home, if you don't already have one.
By the way, there's is a distinction to be made here between "broadcast quality" and "audition quality," and you need to understand the difference, especially if you intend to audition for ACX projects.
While this doesn't mean that you have to necessarily sink several thousands of dollars into your home recording space, it does require more thought and planning than just buying a plug-in and play mic.
You'll also want to be sure to check out ACX's Video Lessons and Resources page, and keep checking back periodically, because they keep refining, updating and adding new, valuable information: https://www.acx.com/help/video-lessons-resources/200672590 ;
...or you can forget about the home studio altogether and just take up residence at Heathrow. See yesterday's post http://bit.ly/KdxOOp ; for more on that story.
ACX: "As with any home business, you must be able to set boundaries, and that may take some getting used to. But setting up and running a home studio can be educational, rewarding and liberating. It can provide you with more options for work and greater control over your own destiny. And best of all, if done right, it can be an additional revenue stream to compliment the money you make recording for traditional studios." 
"Idiots of Craigslist.com" site flagged this post from 5/11/12, but unfortunately, it looks as though the their site has been hacked, so we can't link to their comments directly. Since their site is down, as a public service, we are reposting their comments below and agree with them 110%!
By the way, don't know if the "idiots" they are referring to are the ones who posted the job, or the ones who would actually consider auditioning for it...
IdiotsofCraigslist.com: "You have GOT to be kidding me. You want a professional type performer, with professional equipment to send you audition voice samples, so they can create your scripts for you FOR FREE? Are you insane?
'This would be an unpaid gig, however, your voice would the officialvoiceof our show, withhundreds of thousands of people hearing iteverymonth! '
Okay, two things here. One – If “hundreds of thousands of people” are listening every month and you aren’t making thousands and thousands of dollars that you should be sharing with the talent, then you aren’t much of a business person. Two – “Your voice would the official voice of our show”, so the heck what? Does that mean on air credit? Probably not. Basically what you are offering is less than nothing, because I can do this work and put it on my reel for free without giving it to you.
You can flag my ad off as much as you like guys, I’m not going anywhere untl you stop trying to rip VO performers off." 
This is the second "Adapt or perish!" article we've seen in the last hour (we'll post the other shortly)...Interesting. We wonder if it's as a result of the direct fallout from the other days' LA Times voiceover article; and the agent is using this platform to send a not-so-subtle message... (If you missed it, you can read it here: http://bit.ly/IKcQIR ;)
Backstage: Voiceover agent Paul Doherty is on the lookout for performers who demonstrate flexibility and entrepreneurial skills...."Casting directors have told me 24,000 actors are pursuing voiceover work just in Southern California," Doherty says. "The business demands lots of choices, and that has increased with the Internet. At the same time, you have the best-trained group of performers in our history. But too few are trained to compete. You need to have the entrepreneur in your blood and be willing to reinvent and expand your abilities." 
Here's yet another article in LA Times that features veteran voice actors grousing about celebrities stealing all their work.
Here's the problem as we see it...the LA Times could have easily just re-run their article from last year featuring veteran voice actors complaining about celebrities "stealing all the animation work,"just by replacing the word "animation" with "commercial."
Why is this a problem? Because over the course of a year, the LA Times runs maybe 1-2 articles that mention voice actors, and over the last couple of years it seems like they've all been about veteran voice actors complaining about celebrities taking all their work! So while these articles are meant to raise awareness of very legitimate concerns and engender sympathy for working voice actors whose livelihoods are genuinely at stake because they are losing more and more work to celebrities at one end, and non-union actors at the other, we doubt that they are having the intended effect. Instead, they are just making voice actors appear to be rather a whiny bunch and antagonize the very producers whom they need to win over...(Referring to them as "star f@*k#rs," is not particularly endearing...)
So the next article we'd like to see in the LA Times is one about how veteran voice actors---tired of hemorrhaging jobs to celebrities and non-union actors---PROACTIVELY embarked on a massive offensive, aided by their talent agents and the Union to inform and enlighten ad agency, movie studio, TV documentary and video game producers, about the benefits of hiring experienced, non-celebrity Union voice talent. It may be too late to reverse the course, but we do believe that taking positive action, could certainly help staunch the bleeding.
LA Times: "Some are fabulous and some are pretty mediocre," said Keri Tombazian, a veteran voice actor. "The unfortunate thing for us is that career voice-over actors are not afforded the luxury of mediocrity." For stars, it's a lucrative payday at a time of belt-tightening across Hollywood. For Madison Avenue, it's a way to tap into the nation's celebrity obsession and associate with the glamour of Hollywood. But for...voice-over professionals, it's money out of their pockets." 
Here is the second article we ran across today that sounds a clear "adapt or perish" warning to professional voice actors from a veteran industry observer...
While the author makes some insightful, relevant observations, and is correct in making the point that far too many people fail to grasp going in how difficult it really is to succeed as a voice actor, we'd note that the figure of 1.3 miilion people "pursuing voiceover" on which much of this article is premised, may be grossly inflated...Not because anyone is trying to mislead intentionally, but rather because "pursuing voiceover" can be defined in very different ways by different people.
To show you what we mean and how drastically the figure can vary depending on who is doing the tallying, last year Voice 123 had 136,000 00 registered users, but of those, only 4000 actually submitted auditions, according to Community Manager, Steven Lowell (http://bit.ly/J0ZBpI). So, if you simply considered all registered users as "pursuing voiceover work," you'd get a large number, whereas if you decided only to count those who actually auditioned, that number would be cut by 97%! (On the other hand, the figure of over 24,000 people pursuing VO work in LA area mentioned by the CESD agent in the article we posted earlier this evening sounds entirely plausible to us.)
Voxmarketising/Marice Tobias: "Do not expect to get anywhere with generic materials, standard reads or being a canvas upon which clients can paint. And, it’s at least a five year minimum build to a solid career, so don’t give up your day job until it’s totally in the way." |
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